


Trick Blue

by sugarapplesweet



Category: Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22827937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarapplesweet/pseuds/sugarapplesweet
Summary: You come to expect some things, living in a village like Forget-Me-Not.  You have it all figured out, right up until you don't, and the only place you can go to put yourself back together is the local tavern.  It's not all bad, though... when you have a beautiful woman there waiting for you.
Relationships: Muffy | Muumuu/Nami (Harvest Moon)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Trick Blue

Muffy gathers her loose curls into a ponytail. Two or three bobby pins are clenched between her teeth, and she fights the urge to chew on them. Her jaw aches enough as it is from biting back words. The elastic snaps and catches her finger. She doesn’t feel the sting. She pins back her bangs and gets to the hard work.

They say beauty is only skin deep. She’s twenty-eight and losing time, so spackling layers of foundation and concealer will need to fill in the cracks that life has left. Her hands are skilled and follow muscle memory to smooth away her pores. Baby blue polish over irregular but clean nails, the best she has in this neck of the woods. Her mascara tube is running dry. That eyebrow pencil never seems to shrink, though.

If she went back to her preteen years, Muffy would lose the tweezers down the drain. Her big sister would thank her too. Not that either of them thought to write or knew where to send. Another misstep, another regret.

She smiles at herself in the cracked mirror. The only picture she has left of herself, just herself, wears the same smile as they stare at one another for only a moment. The light doesn’t reach their otherwise bright green eyes.

Muffy digs into her little black bag for a lovely gold tube. It looks like the bullet casings that littered the front stoop of her old apartment, and it’s just as old as the memory. They don’t even make this red anymore. Too loud, but it whitens her teeth after the coffee and wine.

Just once, she thinks, she’ll leave her hair up. She drops the bobby pins on the vanity, and she places her bangs just so. Let her regulars see the tenderness of her neck while she carries the familiar weight of her gold hoop earrings. Her mother’s, she’ll tell them, from when she was just a girl herself. Only Griffin knows because no one else asks.

She loosens the hair tie, and then Muffy hears a creak. She turns to look, and she sees the shock of red hair. Wild, unkempt, and without a doubt cut with kitchen scissors.

“Hello, Nami.” She can’t hide the rise in pitch when she speaks. “You’re early.”

“Bar opens at one, right?”

“Same time every day~”

They gaze at one another as Nami lingers on the ladder rungs. There’s not much room for two, standing anyway,but the bed is made like a pretty, scalloped envelope. An invitation that’s never taken. Every so often, Muffy catches those blue eyes darting across the room, but they always settle on her. Like she doesn’t want to look away.

“Then come downstairs. Griffin stepped out,” Nami says. “I don’t know shit about what goes on behind the counter.”

“But you’re thirsty.” Muffy stands only to kneel beside the hatch. “Go on then, and I’ll be right there with you. I can handle pouring whiskey over ice.”

Nami’s glance is as subtle as the old man’s stares. Of course,black lace against pale skin demands attention, even when peeking out from under a red silk dress. It’s precisely why Muffy bought the set right down to the garters. She waits for the day when she can show it to a pair of eyes that will appreciate every curve in and out of them.

Nami dips down into Griffin’s room. He’s always been a gentleman about giving her her own space, but all their regulars make time to step in back to chat. They can’t leave well enough alone and talk sensibly to him over their drinks at the bar. Even Nami doesn’t seem to talk after dark. Mutter, maybe, but that’s not conversation.

Muffy watches her leave. She doesn’t know where Nami comes from, only what little she left behind. An overbearing father, goals she failed to reach if she ever reached for them in the first place. She left once, only to return, and never did she give an explanation. She only ever said, “It’s all over now.”

When Muffy thinks about it, she decides that’s good enough. She turns off the lamp beside the bed and carefully descends to the floor. Her shiny black heels wait for her at the bottom of the ladder. As soon as her stocking feet are settled into the soles, she feels like she’s grounded at last. Every step without them threatens to lift her up and leave her floating.

She doesn’t want to drift from this place.  
The thoughts of her time elsewhere are locked away before they take root. They sleep alongside every bad first date, every burning throat and aching head, and the ink black stains of every broken heart she’s ever had. Forget-Me-Not is a lie because everyone has things they want to forget. People, too.

Nami sits at the far end of the bar. She always wears the same blue and white plaid vest, and the edges are frayed. Ruby keeps it going beyond its years with soft patches sewn over the worn places. The latest addition is a mustard patch with a red flower embroidered front and center. It’s practically right over her heart.

“Very subtle.” Muffy pokes it. “Haven’t you two sorted it out with her? She’s like your mom… so I’m sure what you two decided matters to her.”

Nami tries to smile. “Better than her trying to set me up with Rock.”

“Yeah, but in the meantime, you and Gustafa are avoiding each other. Outside of here.”

“He’s got his own troubles.” Nami pats the counter with a soft hand. “Come on, Muffy. I need a drink to get me going.”

Muffy smiles and reaches for a glass. She brings it down from a shelf almost too tall to reach, and she has to pull her dress back down. Her back is turned, but there’s a feeling that starts at her heels and travels up to her rear. She knows the feeling well, but it brings color to her cheeks for the first in a very long time.

She steadies her hand and cracks the ice into the glass. “If he’s not the one you want, you should just say so. Gustafa knows. Everyone here at the bar knows.”

“Everyone at the bars knows a lot of things that I haven’t said.”

Muffy opens the ‘good’ whiskey and pours it over the shards. They continue to crack but never break,and she wonders if she hears the same in Nami’s voice. She never talks above a hush. This is unusual. A nerve has been struck, and it’s starting to sting for Muffy too.

“Then what happened? Did Gustafa change, did you?” She slides the glass across the polished oak. “Did we all assume? No matter what it is, you can be sad. You can be angry, even.”

Muffy can feel her own doubts creeping in. She hasn’t been in the exact same place, bust she’s been on the same road, in the same neighborhood. Back when Griffin brought her to this town and moved her upstairs. She remembers the gossip, the good with the bad. She still feels the doubt settle over her bones at night when she hears him breathing in his bed below hers.

Did she miss her chance with the one good man right in front of her?

“I never loved him before,” Nami says. “I want him, but I don’t think it’s love in the way that other people have. I don’t want to be the girl he sings about. I don’t think she exists.”

Both women don’t say it, but they share the same thought. “Until she came along.”

Nami brings the glass to her lips. Half of it is gone, and she swallowed the words with her drink. She never makes a face. Liquor makes her steady, and the ice in her glare melts away. As much as it’s probably killing her, this is the Nami her friends like best.

Muffy admits that she does too.

“Why don’t you stay with me for a little while?” she offers. “The bed is small, but I think we should fit.”

The second drink empties the glass,and it lands on the wood with a hollow thunk as it falls. Nami leans across the bar, and her shirt catches on the rough edge. She isn’t wearing a bra. Maybe she never has, and Muffy just noticed. She can’t forget it now.

“How do you think we can fit without lying on top of each other?” There’s a smirk tugging at the corner of Nami’s mouth. Chapped lips and a hint of a dimple on either cheek. “Where am I going to lay my head?”

“On me, of course.”

The words shoot out of her mouth. Muffy can’t stop them, but she feels no shame. No heat rushing to her ears. If anything, she gets smug. She puts her hand down between the bottles of booze and leans in.

“If you think you can get to me, Nami, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“Then why don’t you show me what you’re really asking?”

They’re grown women. They don’t need the games or the work around, but it feels good. Just as good as Muffy reaching across the bar, grabbing that old vest with her two strong hands. The glass spins onto its side and falls to the floor. She trusts that it doesn’t break. She forgets about it the moment that her lips meet Nami’s.

Their teeth knock into one another’s, and Nami braces herself at first. Then reaches up to pull Muff half across the counter by her hair. She forgot to take it down. She thinks it was the right choice after all.

If Nami’s ever kissed before, she’s not sure she did it right. She squeaks, like a mouse, when Muffy’s tongue glides over her own. Before she can play her part, the kiss is over. She can feel the smear of lipstick left behind.

“You should stay,” Muffy says again. “Give us all something new to talk about for once.”

Muffy stands with her arms spread wide and her hands resting on the bar like she owns it. Her ponytail falls over her shoulders, while her curls brush over bare skin. Her green eyes sparkle. She licks away the red smudge in the corner of her mouth as if she’s tasting blood.

“I’d love that too.” Nami looks down at the floor, then back up again. She’s in over her head again, but this time, for the first time, she’s okay with drowning. “But before all that, let’s do this again.”

**Author's Note:**

> I needed a break from the second draft of my novel, and it felt natural to come back to the Harvest Moon series. This rare pair has appealed to me since I was a wee little bisexual, and Muffy in particular sang her siren song so sweet that I had to do her and Nami justice. Even if it's only short form. I just love a lipstick lesbian and her butch girlfriend.
> 
> A Wonderful Life might never get the remake that it deserves, but I look forward to playing the new Friends of Mineral Town when it comes to Switch. Nothing like coming back to the roots of my first fandom.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
